The increase in drug use over the past several decades has created a sharp need for a more efficient, effective and quick method of analyzing as to whether a particular individual is a user of certain illegal substances or drug of abuse.
One of the easiest and most common test types is to require the person to supply a urine specimen for testing. The urine specimen can be used to determine the presence of certain illegal substances of drug of abuse for example amphetamines, methamphetamines, phencyclidines, cannabinoids, marijuana, cocaine, morphine, heroin, opiates and others.
Hence, there are many different types of urine drug test kits available as on-site tests, and/or laboratory analysis. If a positive result (drug presence indicated) is found, the specimen is usually sent to a laboratory for confirmation test. However, there are two main problems with regard to the use of urine drug test kits. First, the efficacy of urine testing is debatable due to systematic cheating. This may be done through simple adulteration or specimen substitution and both are effective ways of avoiding would-be positive tests. As such, to ensure that the urine specimen collected is not adulterated or substituted there may be a need to monitor the taking of urine specimen to ensure reliability of the test results. And direct monitoring of the collection of urine specimen in itself pose another problem of invading the privacy rights of the person. Secondly, there is a concern that there may be tampering with the urine specimen after is has been collected.
Further during the transfer of the specimen it may be that vigorous shaking of the container causes spillage of the specimen or backflow of the specimen. If the specimen should test “positive” to indicate the presence of a drug in the urine, it is then necessary to send the specimen for confirmatory test done in a certified laboratory. Additionally, the specimen could be spilled or contaminated if the lid or cap of the cup is removed for said confirmatory test. It is therefore necessary to make the containers leak proof and easy to handle under such situation.
There are many known testing devices or apparatus which were proposed for the collection of urine specimen. However, none have specially designed tamper-proof features to prevent adulteration or substitution of the specimen collected. Hence according to the present invention, the specimen collecting and testing apparatus provides this solution by providing tamper-proof features for collecting and testing urine specimen and preventing the specimen from being adulterated or substituted. In addition the said apparatus is leaf proof and easy to handle.